Experts say kale is safest to consume when cooked.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
“Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all,” said
Harriet Van Horne,
the 20th century American journalist, when she so eloquently
highlighted the importance of taking time to prepare a meal. In an age
where Americans spend an increasingly smaller amount of time preparing
their food, this beautiful art is quickly falling out of fashion. What
many do not realize, however, is that how you cook a dish doesn’t only
enhance its flavor, it might just save your health. Here’s a rundown on
foods where preparation may be the difference between a full belly and a
trip to the ER.
1.Chia Seeds- Must Be Soaked Before Consumption
In case you haven’t heard, Chia seeds are the newest superfood, and deservingly so. According to
Medical Daily,
a simple 2-teaspoon serving packs only 117 calories, but also delivers
an impressive 4 grams of protein, 8 grams of fiber, and an impressive
amount of omega-3s for a healthy heart. With all these health benefits,
it would seem crazy not to squeeze these little guys into your diet
somehow. Unfortunately, what some don’t realize is, when it comes to
chia seeds, there is a right and a seriously wrong way to eat them.
The seeds are able to absorb 27 times their dry weight in water. As reported by
Time,
when this happens the seeds congeal into a thickened gel-like mass,
which can become lodged in the consumer’s esophagus. Dr. Rebecca Rawl, a
gastroenterologist who has worked with a patient suffering from such a
problem explains that although it was the first time she’s ever
encountered such a case, she feels it won’t be the last time. “The
popularity of chia seeds is growing, and I think this will come up more
frequently,” Rawl told
Time.
The proper way to eat chia seeds is to allow them to expand fully in
liquid before eating or drinking them. If this is done correctly, then
eating these super-seeds shouldn’t be any problem.
To avoid choking, please soak your chia seeds.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
2. Kale- Best Eaten Cooked And In Moderation
Although it may sound like the secret love child of Katniss and Gale from
The Hunger Games
(if only), kale is actually a super healthy food from the same family
as broccoli and Brussels sprouts. When steamed, the vegetable can
provide consumers with serious cholesterol-lowering benefits. As
reported by
Medical Daily,
kale, like its other cruciferous cousins, is packed with antioxidants,
cardiovascular supports, anti-inflammatory, and cancer-fighting
benefits. That is when it's consumed in moderation.
Jennifer Berman, a journalist for
The New York Times, wrote earlier this year of how daily diets of raw kale health shakes lead her to develop
hypothyroidism.
Also known as an underactive thyroid, this is a condition where the
thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough of certain hormones, which can
result in a slowed metabolism, joint pain, infertility, and heart
disease. Although the condition is usually found in women aged 60 and
older, the goitrogenic properties of kale, which contribute to the
enlarged thyroid, can caused the condition in otherwise healthy young
women.
Cooking Kale won’t completely get rid of these goitrogenic
properties, but it will help to reduce them. Deirdre Orceyre, a
naturopathic physician at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the
George Washington University Medical Center, told
The Washington Post that
on top of containing the sometimes thyroid-suppressing compound,
uncooked kale can also “be hard on the digestive system,” Orceyre
recommends not eating the vegetable in its raw form more than once or
twice a week, but added that you can eat cooked kale as much as you'd
like.
Unfortunately, there is a minor downside to this
only eating
cooked kale. “Some vitamins in dark leafy greens are not heat-resistant
and can become damaged,” explained Marissa Puleo, a licensed registered
dietician, to
Medical Daily. Rather than worrying how you
prepare your kale, Puleo offered a rule of thumb that rings true for all
foods: “Eating any item in excessive amount just isn’t suggested
because you can get deficiencies from other vitamins you may ignore. I
would say to not so much focus on any one diet or any one fad. Just eat
in general a healthy, balanced diet. Diets tend to leave out important
nutrients and could be doing the body more harm than good."
3. Red Kidney Beans- Must Be Soaked Before Preparing
Raw-food-ism is slowly gaining popularity around the world. According
Medical News Today, the
raw food diet is built around the idea that consuming mainly uncooked
foods will help you to achieve significant weight loss and enhance the
body’s ability to prevent and fight disease. This is because essential
enzymes in food are destroyed in hot temperatures. While there is
scientific data supporting the claims of raw-foodists, a meal consisting
of raw red kidney beans may be the last meal an individual will ever
have.
If you come across raw red kidney beans for sale at an organic shop,
please prepare them correctly before consumption. Naturally, red kidney
beans contain toxins called
lectins.
This chemical inhibits the stomach cells' ability to self-repair
following natural stresses. On a microbiological level, this results in
the death of the cells, but to those who consume the raw bean, it feels
similar to an intense stomach ache. As little as five raw beans can
cause nausea and vomiting.
In order to be safe for consumption, these beans must first be soaked in water for at least five hours,
Cooking Light reported.
It takes careful preparation before this favorite side is edible.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
4. Rhubarb- Must Remove Leaves Before Cooking
If you have any decent taste in dessert, you’ll know that nothing
beats a good strawberry rhubarb pie. However, if you’re looking to bake
one from ingredients in your own garden, it’s important you learn how to
properly prepare the rhubarb for cooking. There’s a reason rhubarb in
the supermarkets comes leafless. The leaves are poisonous. According to
Medline Plus, they contain anthraquinone glycosides and oxalic acid. While
Cooking Light
reports that it would take an abnormally large amount of rhubarb leaves
to kill a person (a 140-pound person would have to consume 10 pounds of
leaves), even in small amounts the leaves can make a person ill.
Symptoms of rhubarb stalk poisoning include: difficulty breathing,
burning in the mouth, diarrhea, eye pain, seizures, and vomiting.
You must remove rhubard leaves before preparing the vegatable in your dish.
5. Ackee- Must Wait Until Fruit Is Fully Ripe
The ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica, and anyone who has eaten
Jamaican cuisine is bound to be familiar with the famous Ackee and
Saltfish. The unripened ackee fruit is known for a much more sinister
reason: being
one of the most deadly food in the world. Unripe fruit contains hypoglycin and consumption of unripe fruit causes the rightly named
Jamaican Vomiting Sickness.
JVS, also known as toxic hypoglycemic syndrome, is associated with
severe disturbances in the carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Symptoms
of this illness are abdominal pain, depleting of hepatic glycogen,
hypoglycemia, aciduria, coma, and, unfortunately, in the most severe
cases, death.
When eating ackee, one must wait until the fruit’s protective pods turn red and open naturally,
Time
reported. Once open, the only edible section is the yellow arilli. This
is surrounded by signature black seeds, which are always toxic,
regardless of the fruit’s ripeness.
Jamaica's national fruit is deadly if prepared the wrong way.
Photo courtesy of kaiton CC BY-SA 2.0
Source:
medicaldaily.com
